Giving Back

Recent Workshops

Traveling to Eastern North Carolina

During a recent residency at Montclair Elementary School in Fayetteville, NC, Doreyl and I had the opportunity to work with some great children in the 4th grade and some excellent teachers. 70 students (divided into 3 groups) were involved. As one of the learning projects, each group was to come up with a class "story." This was accomplished by choosing a storyline, and then working together orally, brainstorming and writing down the story as we went, covering the basis of   a beginning, a middle, a conflict, a climax, and an ending.   I called the whole process "A Twist of a Tale." After the story was completed, the class then illustrated the story. I was so impressed with the products that I immediately thought I must post the stories online so others may read how creative the 4th graders are at Montclair Elementary School!







Group One
Teacher: Linda Wilson
(plus part of Beth Grey's class)

"Cockroaches Saved the Day"

In a dense, dark valley in the Great Smoky Mountains, Amy and Doreyl Ammons approached the tiny log cabin snuggled in the woods. Poison Ivy surrounded the walls of the cabin. Behind the cabin was an old barn with a broken down door.
      Doreyl clutched Fifi, her spoiled poodle, as they entered the log cabin. Doreyl and Amy were spending a weekend at the cabin to write their new book. Unfortunately, they are suffering from writers block. How can they solve this problem?
      The moment they opened the cabin door, Fifi squirmed out of Doreyl's arms and sniffed around the cabin. Running towards the sofa, Fifi accidentally slipped and knocked a priceless vase onto the hard pine floor. Doreyl and Amy gasped in horror as a vampire bat rises from the overturned vase. In the shadow of the bat, a genie appears.
      Fifi dashed under the carpet with only her head protruding. Screaming, Doreyl rushed to open the door so the bat could escape. Suddenly the genie rose into the air and granted Fifi three wishes. Fifi wished for "Bones, more bones, and even more bones!"
      As bones begin to appear, the genie cackled as he floated through the front door.
      All of a sudden, white pearly bones began to fall on top of Fifi. Soon Fifi was whining and suffocating from the piles of bones on top of her. Will Fifi live to see Doreyl and Amy again?
      Seconds passed and Fifi's whining began to fade. As Amy screamed "She's dying!" thousands and thousands of cockroaches shot from different directions from the barn. They covered the bones, and the mound of bones began to decrease. In a matter of moments, the bones were devoured and those fat cockroaches wobbled away toward the barn with the broken down door.
      Amy and Doreyl spied the last bone. One tiny cockroach dragged the bone away.
      "Finally I know what to write my book about!" said Amy.
      "And I can illustrate the book!" said Doreyl.


Group Two
Teacher: Clyde Carr
(plus part of Beth Grey's class)

In this instance, the class brainstormed the story, and each 4th grader wrote the story down in his/her own words. Mr. Carr gave 1st and 2nd place to the following two young writers:

"Babe Ruth Set the Town on Fire"
First Place by Juan Gonzales

One day Babe Ruth was going to Fayetteville to play his first baseball game. First, me and my dad went to get the tickets. We got a blue foam finger with nachos and popcorn. I asked for extra butter.
      Afterwards we got our seats. We got front row seats. Babe Ruth went up to home plate.
      Strike one!
      The pitcher threw the ball again.
      BAM!!!
      Babe Ruth made a home run. The crowd went wild!
      All of a sudden, someone from the crowd said, "The ball is on fire, and its going to hit a downtown building!"
      Then it landed on someone's paperwork. The man threw the burning paper on the ground, and then the building caught on fire!   All of the people went to one side of the building...and the building fell onto the other building. Then it fell on the armory store and the fire got big...and worse!
      Babe Ruth took the fire hose and put it in the Cape Fear River. Finally Babe Ruth put out the fire and saved the day...and won his first trophy.
      I'm glad he saved the town.


"Downtown on Fire"
Second Place by Catherine Ross

The crowd was cheering at the top of their lungs. It was Babe Ruth's first game. Everybody was breathing in the afternoon mist in the air. Babe Ruth was really excited, but also nervous. Sweat ran down his cheeks as the hot sun baked and aroma of roasted nuts came to him. This was in the early 1900's.
      The pitcher threw the ball so fast it was on fire! But Babe Ruth batted the ball! It was his first home run! As he ran, the ball was headed for the armory. The ball was literally on fire!
      The ball landed on a piece of paper, and the fire started to spread. Everyone was so scared (even Babe Ruth) that they drove uptown. The building exploded into flames and since there was dynamite, the explosion was huge. Everyone in downtown could see and hear the explosion. It was so huge that downtown Fayetteville was burned down! Now everyone in Fayetteville had to move uptown.
      Babe Ruth had to pay them all the money he made and so did the pitcher. They were able to rebuild downtown Fayetteville, but this time, they built the armory somewhere else. Now Fayetteville is the 7th largest city in North Carolina and they even build a model of the Eiffel Tower in the park.
      That's the story.


Group 3
Teacher:   Sue Russ
(plus part of Beth Grey's class)
    

"Patches the Brave"

This is the story of Patches the fish. He was called Patches because he was white with a black spot on his right fin. His home was the Cape Fear River. Two of his friends were crabs who crawled on the bottom of the river. The crabs were named Bobby and Bobbalena, who were brother and sister who fought a lot.
      Suddenly, from the far end of the river came Hot Shot, the sea dragon. He headed right for Bobby and Bobbalena! He came so fast that they did not know what to do.
      Patches faced the sea dragon and swam away. The sea dragon went after him. Patches led the sea dragon on to a net what was hanging from a pier. Patches swam into the net and Hot Shot followed. Patches knew he could swim through the net and Hot Shot would get caught.
      When Patches swam back, Bobby and Bobbalena said, "Hot Shot's not all that bad. We should let him go!"
      So the three friends let Hot Shot out of the net. Once Hot Shot got out, he said, "I learned a valuable lesson!"
      And they swam and they swam and they swam all over the river!